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A Quote for life!

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.Specialization is for Insects”

Robert A Heinlein(American science-fiction writer,1907-1988)

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Mumbai………Terrorist attacks again – now in Mumbai. Yesterday, on November 26, 2008 evening at around 9 PM when I was in office and was about to go out for a break, terror broke on Mumbai. There were blasts and gunshots in 10 different parts of the city and three major international hotels were taken hostages. It was evening time yesterday when the terrorists came in the waterway, got down in Chaupatty, near the Gateway of India and just walked in to the city. Is it possible in the commercial capital of as huge a country like India? Well, it was made possible yesterday, by a handful of anti social elements. The Government just stared at them who went on killing people at will. They hijacked a car and started shooting people all around them. The places that were brought under alarm are Leopolo Café, Nariman House in Colaba, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Railway Station, Hotel Taj Mahal in Colaba, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Vile Parle, G.T. Hospital and Cama Hospital, Metro Cinema, Wadi Bunder, Girgaun and Chaupatty.

The terrorists were inside Taj, Oberoi Trident and in Nariman House and kept people hostage inside. The Mumbai Police Services and National Security Guards (NSG) did a good job all these hours and now the Indian Army has taken control of the situation. The Anti Terror Squad (ATS) jumped into the situation yesterday too. The ATS Chief along with a few other policemen died while fighting terror yesterday and today. The operation is still going on as I am typing this. Hostages in Hotel Taj have been rescued and all the terrorists were killed except one, who is injured but still inside the hotel. There are few more disruptive dogs inside the other two buildings and they are sure to be brooded out by the next few hours. The Indian Army is operating and I have full faith in them.

Its high time mates! The citizens of India are too much tolerant and they have shown all lenience and broadmindedness as they could to all these attacks through all these months. Now, the water is going above the mark and this is the point we should act.

India is dangerous now. There is no more security. There is no assurance that you would be alive tomorrow to see your family or to pay your mobile bill. All these time, I thought that the ministry will take some action against terrorism in the country; but, nothing happened all these days. I can see them only when there is some problem. Only when people die they come up with pre-written speeches that do not have any impact or meaning at all. I was listening to Dr. Manmohan Singh speaking to the country at about 2:34 PM today – what a speech it was! I did not understand what he meant when he said to have patience and not to panic. Did he mean those things? I am sure he did not. He knew we would panic and we cannot be patient any more. Politicians will be politicians – whether they are sitting on the throne or they are barking for it. We do not need them no more. We have had enough now and we need to see things happening now. This is time to act not to vote. If you are not voting – you are doing the right thing. Disobey rules and abandon government offices – it has to be a Civil Disobedience movement again now, until the government starts working for the people as it should do.

Results:The last two One Day Internationals between India and England are dissolved and will not happen now.Wikipedia has put an entry on Indian Terror Conditions.The world is looking into Mumbai right now and everyone is focusing on the fact that the Britons and Americans were targeted in the hostage situation.Huge sections of the architectural marvel – the Taj Mahal Heritage hotel is burnt.The outrageous situation is still not under control and the operations are going on.

Life is a game – rather a series of games – you fail in one and succeed in the other, and the series goes on until you win. The end result is planned already. However, the journey to that end does not always see you wining. The journey is bejeweled with an exotic mix-n-match of triumph and defeat. Sometime you lose, sometime you win. Every time you lose, you get an experience – an understanding of the situation around you. You use this knowledge to move ahead in life and ensure that you do not repeat the same mistake. This is what you get from failures. When you have failed many times, you will be equipped enough not to fail any more. Next time you try to do the same thing, you would not commit all the mistakes that have brought failure to you previously, and thus you increase your chance to complete the work.

Failure was seen in lots of different ways by lots of people from all over the world. Some explained failure as the stepping stone to success, some portrayed failure as the key to all great achievements. I read a lot of quotes today and these are a few I loved most. Everyone who said something about Failure agrees on one thing, that Failure is not the end of anything. They agree that man should not stop on failure, but should rise, pull up the socks and try even more hard to move ahead in life. Hope you would like the following quotes:

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”... Sven Goran Eriksson

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently"... Henry Ford

“There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.” ... Meimei Tom Krause

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”... Colin Powell

“Success builds character, failure reveals it” ... Dave Checkett

“Try and fail, but don't fail to try.”... Stephen Kaggwa

“Failure is nature's plan to prepare you for great responsibilities” ... Napoleon Hill

“Failure is success if we learn from it.”... Malcolm S. Forbes

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”... Elbert Hubbard

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.”... George Bernard Shaw

"My reputation grows with every failure.”... George Bernard Shaw

"Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.”... James Russell Lowell

The idea is to carry on – to move on with life. Moving on with life means to forget about what has happened, stand up, look straight into the eyes of the next challenge that the life throws at you and face it and beat it to win. This is how we move on in life. We may face some hurdle in life which might look and sound too much difficult to be overtaken. We may fail the first time to solve it. We may fail a thousand times to jump over it until that one leap – that one hop – which will take us all the way to the top – the top where we can be the winner. This tells us that we need to keep on trying and should never give up. The moment we give up may be the moment prior to success. Can it be not? How aptly said:

“Life's real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.”

Failure is the pillar of success. It should strengthen us and make us better prepared for the job. We know what not to do (as Benjamin Franklin told) while on that (specific) job. Having known all these, we go on trying and achieving what we desire and we get what we deserve. We never stop trying to achieve our most wanted wishes in life and we keep on trying on the path and we meet failures in between, but at the very last of the path, we ought to get success and that’s what we shall.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

“Life is like a box of chocolate – you never know what you are going to get.” That’s what Forrest’s Mom said. One of my favorite lines! It means that there is no certainty in life. Life is unpredictable. I agree – you might agree too.

However, there is another face of the same. I like this one too. Life is a box of chocolate. So, whatever you get, will be a chocolate – good to eat – I love to eat chocolates – be it the sweet Made-in-India chocolates or the milky indigenous chocolates of the Niligiri Hills (Specially from Ooty) or the hard, bitter Swiss chocolates. Whenever you put your hand in a box of chocolates and take one out, it will be a chocolate – the flavor or taste may vary. So, you are a winner every time you put in your hand to fetch a chocolate. You get different flavors which you may like or dislike – but you get to eat a chocolate every time.

This means, that whatever you get in life – it will always be for good. My mother use to say, “What God does, does for the Best.” And this is the best way I can describe the sentence told by Forrest’s Mom. The two ladies have never met but they think alike – staying thousands of miles away from each other. Coincidence!

There is one more facet to this. However, it tells about the difference of a box of chocolate and our lives. A box of chocolate has to end somewhere – when you take out all the chocolate pieces from it. How much ever big a box you get this Christmas, it will finish sometime (call me home; I will show you how it gets emptied). Well, this is not the case with life. It never gets out of ‘chocolate pieces’ and keeps on giving us one after the other. We get new chocolates – we get more chocolates every time – throughout. All of those are new challenges – with different flavors. It is us who have to deal with these challenges and move forward. This is the best part in life. You never get bored of it. The moment you find yourself having settled all the issues, you are faced with new ones. You meet the new challenges and face them with the right attitude and you move ahead. This is how life is – never out of surprises – never out of fresh opportunities. Keep putting your hands in the box and taking out new pieces of chocolates. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The story of two pillows! Yes, the blog talks about the story of two pillows – pillow as a yard stick. It talks about the will power – it talks about one’s self composure – one’s self control and one’s way of living – when compared to that of the pillows.

Its not a new blog. It is in existence for some time now. I am only a co-author. There are other awesome writers in that. You got to check out the blog. Click here.

Monday, November 10, 2008

India won the Border-Gavaskar trophy beating the awful Aussies. India clinched the series 2-0, wining the second and fourth match in the four match test series. The last match at Nagpur was a historic one. It was the 100th test match for V.V.S. Laxman. Harbhajan Singh also took his 300th wicket during this match. On top of the list – it was the last test ever played by Sourav Ganguly. The legend goes away leading from the front. He led the team into the field on this last day. He captained the team for some time – after the 9th Aussie wicket fell. Thanks to Dhoni.

Aussies started the day with 10 wickets and 300 runs to make for a win – that did not look impossible when Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich took the stance and went on a rampage. Ishant Sharma, the man of the series, came into Indian rescue. A wonderful fielding effort from the fat Amit Mishra took away Ricky Ponting’s precious wicket. Hayden and Hussey wanted to stand against the spinning Indian attack. Dhoni did not give the leg spinner Mishra a bowl before the lunch break on a breaking wicket. Just after lunch Mishra rout Hussey with a bouncing leg break – that too, in his very first over of the inning. Then the downfall of the awful guys started. No one could stand up in between these mates and they surrendered in front of Harbhajan and Mishra’s spinning deliveries. It did not take much time for Dhoni and Co celebrate their victory.

Gavaskar and Border came downstairs to hand over the Airtel-Border-Gavaskar trophy to the Indians; and guess who took it from them – Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Wow! What a gesture from Dhoni. He will be remembered for this. Ishant Sharma was named the man of the series for his brilliant bowling. Mahinder Amarnath pointed out an important thing. Ishant is able to pick up important wickets – what is very important for wining a match.

It was a brilliant scene when Sourav was carried on shoulders of the Indian team out of his last test match. This series will be remembered for many reasons. Everybody contributed – with bat and ball. The batsman Sehwag bowled fabulously to take 5 wickets. Bowlers Harbhajan and Zaheer khan saved the day with their bats. Fielding was immaculate most of the length in the series. An all-round performance that India can be proud of! We are proud of you guys – just carry on!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

There was a change in guard today. The man in charge from now on is Barack Obama. He has brought the hope to change things around aimed at a holistic progress of America and of the World. Barack Obama has won the US presidential Elections 2008 after a long election campaign that lasted for 21 months. He is the new head of the United States of America.

A black in the White House, at last! Breaking all racial barriers, the African American has become the 44th president of the United States. I hope he will prove to be one of the greats that the world has seen so far and would prove to be a helping hand to all the developing and under developed countries. Being a Leo (Born on August 4, 1961) he should be spreading love all around him. Hope India continues to have a good relation with the US and the countries come together to grow as global powerhouses.

I have kept my fingers crossed hoping to see a better tomorrow. I wish him all the luck and expect him to look into the growing and underlying aspects and issues that have been shaking the world – be it economy or terrorism. I look forward to a happy reign of Barack Obama and I am optimistic that “Barry” will prove to be a boon for the US and for the world as a whole.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Jumbo, as we all know him better has declared his inning and has retired from international cricket on Sunday at the Firoz Shah Kotla, New Delhi. A long career of 18 years came to an end on the last day of the 3rd Test Match between India and the awful Aussies, when Kumble bid goodbye. India has always managed to produce heavy weights in the department of spin bowling through the history of cricket. Anil Kumble is probably the best of the lot. He took 337 wickets in ODIs and a mammoth haul of 619 Test wickets during his career that started on August 9, 1990 against England and ended on November 2, 2008 against the awful Aussies.

A true team player and a strongly determined and hard working cricketer saw many ups and downs and criticism throughout his career; however, he came out with wondrous performances to seal the critics mouths every time. The reigning captain of the Indian Cricket Team was compared with all other huge names in spin bowling and has successfully created his own niche in the history of international cricket. He was always an integrated part of the Indian Test Team. The same people who criticized him for his performances in ODIs have seen him roar and hit back hard with better performances in ODIs. Who can forget his match winning 6/12 haul against the West Indies in the Hero Cup finals in 1994!

He wanted to be a fast bowler at the beginning of his career. His brother told him that spin bowling will be a better option as the-then Karnataka team was lacking a spin bowler in their team. The desperation and single mindedness to be in the state team coerced him to take to spin and after all these years, one can blindly say that he has spun well – hasn’t he? Probably his love for fast bowling made him the fastest spin bowler of all time. We are thankful to this brother of his. :)

I am sure one will be very interested and exited to have a look in to his career. The following links would take you to independent websites which has all the information in detail. Please use the same for more information (lol):

I take this opportunity to thank Anil Kumble – the most loved Indian Cricketer overseas.

We have been thrilled by your game – be it your 10 wicket spell against the Pakistanis or be it your century in England. You have always entertained and elated us by your cricket. You have been the one most honored and followed cricketer. Your modesty and honesty were your strengths in your life off the ground whereas your consistency, endurance, hard work and focus were your strong points in your life on the ground.

As always, you have taken a very apt decision at a very good (if not the peak) point in your career. We welcome your decision. We will surely miss you and your googlies and flippers and so will be the cricketing world. Have a lovely life ahead and we wish you all luck in whatever you do in future. We are sure that you will continue to make us proud!

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This is to state that the above blog is not meant for harming or causing ill to any one, in individual or in a group. I have written all that has come to my mind and no one else (or group) has any involvement in the creation, conception or publication on any of the topics above.

The links and the photographs included in the content are sole property of the photographers and/or the actual publishers and all rights are reserved with them.

I am not a law student. This disclaimer (and the content above) is liable of having probable mistakes and flaws and may not be produced in the court of law as any clue or proof of any kind.